Homeward bound

It's been five weeks since I came to Edmonton for the training I need to go to Afghanistan. I'll be flying home next week and I'm looking forward to seeing my family, friends and dog again. They managed to pack a lot of training into my time here, including marksmanship with the pistol and rifle, combat first aid training, medical briefings, language and cultural training, etc.

I've met some great people since I've been here, some of whom I'll be spending long hours with overseas. It's comforting to know, because there are fewer things worse than being in an isolated location for long periods of time with people you don't like.

I've also enjoyed exploring the downtown of Edmonton. As I type this post, I'm sitting in an internet cafe called the Naked Cyber Cafe, which is open 24 hours. They have Sinatra playing on their sound system and it's a pretty cool place. I've also found some good restaurants, pubs, dance clubs and martini lounges, all within walking distance of my hotel. I was introduced to a chain of restaurants located in the west called Earl's. They have excellent ribs and all of their waitresses are gorgeous.

Speaking of hotels, I was glad several of us ended up in the hotel we did. For the first couple of weeks, we were living in the barracks on the base. They had us packed in four to a room which meant we had very little personal space and absolutely no privacy. I was also being woken up regularly by a bunch of retarded apes on my floor who thought it was perfectly acceptable to slam doors at 3am on a weekday. Finally, someone arranged a booking for us in a downtown hotel. I would have been perfectly happy with a basic hotel room, instead I ended up with an apartment style suite that is larger and nicer than my own apartment back home! It has a full kitchen and dining area, a living room with a leather sofa and loveseat, sofa bed, vcr/dvd player, and a gas fireplace. Score!

I'm going to have a lot of time off over the holidays, so it should be a good Christmas. I also found out today my sis-in-law Fickle Feline got the results back from her latest ultrasound and she's going to have a boy. I'm going to have a nephew to buy loud, obnoxious toys for. What fun! I only regret that I'll be overseas when he's born. Oh well, I'll be back in August to meet the little tyke.

It's dinner time here in the prairies, so I'm going to go to a pub just around the corner for some food and a pint or two. I'll see some of you soon. Peace out.

RR